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Posts Tagged ‘goal setting’

Now that 2013 has almost ended, it’s time to kick your professional resolutions into high gear. We don’t know what will come in 2014 but today we share a few goals that will keep you ahead of the pack. (For some personal goals that pack a big professional impact, check out this month’s newsletter.)

Find and tell your corporate story: One of the hottest PR topics this year has been content marketing, and that’s not expected to change in 2014. Effective content marketing requires a savvy strategy, and part of executing that strategy is telling your corporate story. Not only should all content reflect your organization’s brand values and voice, but it should also have universal appeal that also supports business growth.

How do you find your corporation’s story? It’s not really about the organization itself, it’s about using a certain platform to relate to your audience. Use resources to dig a bit deeper into the company’s history, its mission statement, and its values. Use those values and stories as pivot points to engage with your community and spread ideals and positive, consistent messaging.

Say “No” to GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Your end product is inherently tied to what you put into the project, especially your time, your energy, your content. GIGO isn’t a solution; it’s usually a last resort or a byproduct of time or money spread too thin. GIGO comes with a lot of pitfalls, like incomplete data, misleading results, poor performance, unmet goals, and having to go back and fix or re-do work you’ve already done. Assessing where your GIGO is and deciding how to fix it can be a huge upfront investment of time and resources, but it ultimately pays off in greater, long-lasting rewards. We’ll be talking a lot more about getting rid of GIGO in 2014, but for now check out this newsletter and our Seussian poem on GIGO.

Keep your goals SMART: Setting SMART goals keeps you focused and give you direction, as well as ensuring that the goal you’re setting is both measurable and achievable. SMART goals must be: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. So no matter what you’re plotting – content market strategy, sales goals, or social media tactics – remember that SMART goals are achievable goals.

Keep your social media consistent: We know that in a digital, instantaneous world, updating consistently and often is paramount to staying relevant. But it’s also important to keep your organization’s digital voice consistent to maximize your brand’s impact and recognition. If more than one person runs or has access to your organization’s social media accounts, bring them together for an early 2014 meeting to refine the corporate voice and get everyone on the same page.

Similarly, ensure that someone’s consistently monitoring those social media accounts to check for comments or mentions and respond to any questions, shout-outs, or complaints. Users expect a response from a brand within an hour, especially if it’s regarding a complaint, so stay connected, and don’t forget to engage, even with a simple “Thanks for the RT.”

Think about SEO in a whole new way: SEO isn’t about keywords anymore, it’s all about semantics. Google’s Hummingbird update is changing the way the search engine displays search results. Now, it’s about content quality, not just keyword quantity and link building. Build your new SEO strategy along with your content marketing strategy, as the two will now go hand in hand. And don’t neglect Google Plus – while this seems like it should be part of a social media strategy rather than an SEO strategy, Google Plus will become integral in search engine rankings. Check out our post on integrating Google Plus into your SEO strategy for more tips.

It’s holiday season and you’re stuck (or excited to be) hosting Thanksgiving. Though you probably should have started planning your T-Day PR campaign in July, the week before the big day is as good a time as any to plan your Thanksgiving objectives, PR-style.

Set your goals

As with any PR campaign, the first step is to establish measurable goals. The most common Thanksgiving goal? Feed X number of people. To determine how much of each dish you’ll need, factor in the AVE (Appetite Value Extrapolation) (apologies to the Barcelona Principles) for each dish: determine the average serving size (A), multiply by number of attendees (X), then multiply all that by 1.5 (gluttony quotient) . 1.5AX=Z *

* AVE can drastically underestimate or overestimate standard appetite, especially in the presence of college-age males, and does not account for food allergies, likes, dislikes, or strange diet requests.

If your goal is to just make it through the day with your sanity and reputation intact, you’ll need to drill down into data points to make that measurable, such as: number of dishes broken, number of remarks about your housekeeping skills/cooking skills/weight, tone of said remarks, prominence of said remarks (how loudly were they spoken? How many people were in the room? Did anyone nod in agreement?), share of voice (how much of the conversation did these remarks account for?), and other customized measurements.

Outreach

To convince people to attend your Thanksgiving (or to discourage their presence), reach out to your communication channels to establish your message. Recruit Mom or a sibling to spread the word that your Thanksgiving will rival Martha Stewart or Pinterest in class and aesthetics.

Since Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coincide this year, consider giving this year’s celebration a fresh angle: latke-stuffed turkey, matzoh ball stuffing, or a trendy, hashtag-worthy name like #Thanksgivukkah or #Hanukkgiving.

Whether you’re the only one in your Thanksgiving Preparation Department or if you have the help of a number of minions, there’s a good chance of Thanksgiving crisis, say, dropping the turkey, a minor kitchen fire, or a failure to adhere to the promised schedule. This will likely lead to a number of inquiries from hungry bystanders, and if you’re going to avoid T-Day disaster, it’s time to go into crisis mode.

Whatever you do, don’t respond with “No comment.” However, you probably shouldn’t lie with a “No, of course I didn’t drop the turkey.” That will cause more fallout when someone discovers pet fur and an errant penny plastered to their crispy turkey skin.

Instead, turn it into an opportunity: A simple, “It’s all under control,” or a more creative “I’m trying out a new spice rub.”

Word will spread quickly so you’ll need to contain the story. Don’t discuss the direct problem – turkey on the floor – but discuss your overall strategies. “I’ve been preparing Thanksgiving dinner for years, and have developed a comprehensive system for ensuring hygiene while bringing out the optimal flavors of this over-sized poultry. I assure you I’m constantly working to assess any problems that arise and continue to create safeguards to protect against similar situations arising in the future.”

Run that turkey under some water, sprinkle some salt on it, and remind yourself that when the Pilgrims ate their turkey, it was probably dirtier, and they were fine, weren’t they?

December 2012

As a PR and marketing professional you’re probably familiar with both the excitement and, perhaps, even the anxiety of creating new goals for yourself and your organization. In the past, BurrellesLuce has written about using S.M.A.R.T goals to boost productivity, setting measurement goals aligned with company benchmarks, and how to commit to communications planning and achieve PR resolutions.

Now we are offering you 7 steps to help you achieve more meaningful and satisfying goals. Read more.

Smart Goal Setting for 2010
This post proves that setting “SMART” goals is always timely. To ensure success and empower ourselves to achieve both our professional and personal goals, goals need to be specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and fit within a defined time frame.

When It Comes to Brands and Content, Simplicity Matters
The practice of using simple language to engage and connect with a target audience has always been an important part of solid communications. However, this is often easier said than done – especially for PR professionals working in specialty fields where communicating complex information is the norm. Few people have little patience for jargon and pretentious language. And this is equally true for journalists and bloggers who are often working under tight deadlines. This post reflects on several questions savvy PR professionals must ask themselves before pitching “Aunt Edna” and “Uncle Walt.”

My nine year old son came home from swim team practice the other day with a print out of his best times and an assignment to set a goal to improve on each. His first attempt at putting his goals on paper read like this: “I will do better than 44.84 on my 50 yard backstroke.” “That’s great,” I told him, but then asked, “How much better?” I guided him to set specific, tangible numbers and explained that he wanted to reach his goals so they must also be realistic.

We all know goals are essential to success in our lives. Both personally and professionally we utilize goals to keep us moving forward. As we see from my son’s assignment, both children and grownups need goals to stay on track.

After helping him complete his little assignment (which he wrote down and taped on his water bottle) I started thinking about my own personal and professional goals. Are they big enough for the year ahead? Are they focused? Are they reachable? Most important, are they written down and taped up where I can see them each day? I decided to reevaluate my goals with a technique I learned about a year ago when BurrellesLuce had Martin Riesenberg, author of How to Stop Whining and Start Winning and life coach, instruct our sales staff on goal setting. He advised our team to write down our goals – if we think it, ink it! Martin also suggested the SMART method of goal setting:

Specific: Be unambiguous as to exactly what it is you want to achieve.

Measurable: Reaching your goals is a step-by-step process. Be sure to assess your goals on a regular basis to see if they align with your objectives.

Attainable: Make your goals realistic – like I explained to my son, don’t set your goals so high that you won’t reach them. You might even consider breaking larger goals down into more manageable and achievable chunks.

Relevant: Does your goal have significance in your personal or professional life? In Business is it aligned with your overall business objective?

Time Frame: When do you want to achieve your goal? Write the date down on paper.

Goals are very powerful and can help you change things that are not working in your personal or professional life or serve as positive reinforcement for those things that are working. By the way, my son beat his breast stroke goal by 3 seconds! He was so pleased with his accomplishment.

My goals for the New Year are going to be SMART. How do you set goals?

*Bio: Colleen Flood has been a sales consultant with BurrellesLuce for over 12 years and is eager to become a more integrated part of the social-public relations community. She primarily handles agency relations in the New York and New Jersey metro-area. She is not only passionate about work, but also about family, friends, and the Jersey Shore. Twitter: @cgflood LinkedIn: Colleen Flood Facebook: BurrellesLuce